They're Not Exactly Subtle
by JMolover13
Summary: Teenage Emma and Regina are together. Emma's parents know. Regina's don't. Regina is scared to come out to her parents and Emma is over it. EXTRA FLUFFY! Plus fun Cora.


**Anonymous asked you: Regina and Emma grow up together, parents were close friends. Regina and Emma fall in love, but Regina doesn't want to come out to her mom. Emma doesn't want to be Reginas dirty little secret. Happy Ending Please!**

**AN: I decided to set this in Storybrooke instead of The Enchanted Forest. And this is FLUFFY. To the max, the fluff ensues.**

Emma laid her first big girl quilt over her legs. It was her favorite. Her mom made it for her when she got her first big girl bed and she'd used it up until her eighth grade year before finally settling on letting her mother make her another. There were holes in the most inconvenient spots, but that was just where the most love came from—that's what her mom always said, at least.

She was lying on the abundance of blankets and quilts she took from her house and spread on the floor of the old tree house. She and Regina used to be up there for hours when they were younger, but over the last few years, it had become merely decorative.

She'd needed to get away for a while, but she didn't have anywhere to go, then she saw the tree house. She could get all the peace she wanted. So, with a few extension chords leading from the main house to the tree house, Emma had her computer, which she liked to classify as 'her life source' with her. She snuck all the food she could up and stalked the small shelving unit that was once used for toys and colors. She was good to go.

"Emma?"

Emma knew that voice. It was the voice of the woman she loved.

She said nothing.

"Emma? Are you up there?"

Again. Nothing.

"Well, if you're not up there, I guess you don't need this extension chord."

Regina started to pull, but Emma was quick to grab it and yank it back.

"Emma, come on."

The only thing the blonde did was tie the chord to the small railing that surrounded the small entrance in the floor, push her glasses up and cross her arms before falling against her abundance of pillows, turning to the side facing away from the entrance.

"Why are you so immature?" When Regina got nothing, she sighed heavily, "Fine. I'm coming up."

Emma grabbed the top quilt and pulled it over her body in hopes that she would be hidden from sight.

Regina tried to hold back a sigh through her grin as she saw a mess of blonde hair peeking out from under the quilt. She walked over and stood at Emma's feet, "Where oh where has Emma gone? Could she be in the corner with all the food?..." She rolled her eyes as she continued 'searching' for her girlfriend. Honestly, she could be such a child sometimes; she was in a tree house after all. "No. Maybe she's where the old, tiny table and chairs are?… No. Maybe…" She tippy-toed her way over to the side of the house that Emma was on, "Just maybe, she's with this heap of blankets on the floor." She grabbed the edge of Emma's aged quilt and pulled lightly, revealing Emma in her sweat-panted glory.

"Stop!" Emma whined as she grabbed at the quilt, trying to get the woman to give it back.

"No!" Regina matched Emma's tone, telling her how childish she was sounding.

Emma gave the girl a warning look before the brunette gave up, let her have the quilt and settle.

Regina didn't give up entirely though. She let her hand travel up the length of the soft, torn, worn fabric as she stretched out next to her. She took the top of the quilt and pulled it down so that she could see the glasses covered face that was her secret girlfriend.

"Go away." Emma mumbled. She had her puppy face on, which Regina had always found irresistible.

"No."

"Yes!"

"…Why?" Regina asked, knowing she was either going to get an earful or nothing at all.

Emma gave her a glare, though somehow still held that sweet puppy face. "I'm smad and I don't want to be around anyone."

"Smad?"

"Sad and mad."

Regina swallowed hard as she looked into the 'smad' green orbs. "Is this what I think it's about?"

"Probably."

"Darling, I'm… I'm not ready."

"And I'm not a dirty little secret or a tramp." Emma spat before she rolled over.

"Darling…"

"Go. Away." Emma growled, "Come back when you can stand the fact that I _am_ your girlfriend."

"You are my girlfriend—"

"No. Not anymore. Not until you grow the hell up and tell your parents about us."

Regina sighed, "My parents are different than yours."

"Yeah, completely and utterly different until you look at them both and realize that they are the same. We've gone to the same events since we came out of our mothers' wombs… in the same month. We go to barbeques and the Miner's Day and Christmas festivals. We freaking grew up next door to each other. Your parents and my parents think the same. They're all good friends. The only difference between my parents and yours is that mine know about us."

"Only because your mother walked in while we were kissing."

"She knew we were kissing. That's why she walked in."

Regina gave her a look. "I'm not going to talk about this."

"You don't have to. I'll tell them."

"NO!" Regina's tone was fearsome.

Emma gave her a sad, lonely and angry look, "Then get out. I don't like outing people. I don't think they should be outed. But… I've waited. I've been patient. I'm not waiting on you anymore."

Regina stared at her a while longer before she stood and walked around to the hole that would lead her down the nailed-in boards that acted as a ladder.

Emma took off her glasses and cried into her pillow until she fell asleep.

~0~0~0~0~0~

Just as the sun was setting, Emma heard the gate to the backyard open and shut.

She waited.

She heard footfalls in the grass come closer and she heard the unmistakable sound of a person climbing the ladder.

She quickly hid under her blanket.

There was a loud sigh. It wasn't Regina's. Then there was settling against the wall opposite Emma.

Emma decided to peek to see who was with her, "Aunt Cora?"—she'd called the woman 'Aunt Cora' ever since Regina's cousins came for a visit when they were seven (she liked the 'Aunt' added to the woman's name and refused to call her anything else).

"What the hell did you do?"

Emma knit her brows as she looked at the woman, "What are you—?"

"You broke my daughter. What did you do?" Cora raised her brows in that punishing way that always made Emma feel bad even when she didn't do things wrong. "I left this morning for work, she was fine. I come home, she's blubbering like a ninny. And the only thing she said clearly was, 'Emma,' so I will ask again: What the hell did you do?"

Emma turned and laid back down, choosing not to answer the older woman.

"Emma Jane Swan. You better answer me. I'm not your mother, but I know her and I won't hesitate to go get her."

Emma tried not to say anything, but when she heard Cora make to get up, she had to say something, "It's something that you need to talk to her about. It's not my place… not yet..ish."

"Did you break up?"

Emma whipped her head to the older woman and sat up, "Did we…?" she breathe in surprise.

"Did you break up with her? Is that why she's sad? Why the hell would you do that? My daughter is the best thing that could have ever happened to you—"

"You know about us?"

Cora rolled her eyes, "Emma… Dear, you and she are hardly subtle."

Emma looked down, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment, "She's afraid to come out to you."

"She shouldn't be. Did you tell her that?"

"Yeah! And she refused! So… I did too."

Cora nodded and hid the smile that was about to come to surface with understanding, "So you broke up with her because you wanted to be out and proud and she wanted—"

"A dirty little secret. I'm not dirty, I'm bigger than she is and I don't like secrets."

"Yes. You are not the only person that was around for your fit on your sixth birthday. All of us remember you yelling at your father telling him how secrets hurt people."

"Aunt Cora…" Emma refused to look at her as she sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees.

Cora stared at her a bit longer. She stood finally and said, "Get up."

"What?"

"Grab your life source and your quilts—your mother will have a field day if we leave them outside with the weather coming in." The older woman made her way to the exit. When she saw Emma doing nothing, she gave the young woman a look, "Spit, spot."

"Okay! Okay… you don't need to go all Mary Poppins on me, Aunt Cora." Emma grabbed all her quilts and pillows and started throwing them down until only her favorite quilt and her computer remained. She stuffed them in her book bag, grabbed as much of the food as she could with one hand, her mouth and her chin then came down from the tree house.

Cora had gathered the quilts and pillows and was making her way up to the back door.

"Cora? What… is going on?" Mary Margaret looked from the quilts to her daughter in the yard with a bag of kettle cooked barbeque chips hanging out of her mouth and Oreos falling from her chin to her free hand as well as a box of graham crackers and a container of frosting in the other.

"Our daughters had a fight. Yours hid in the tree house and made mine cry. She's now going to make nice and spend the night."

Mary Margaret nodded and looked to her daughter, "You made Regina cry?"

"She made me cry first!" Emma said after removing the chip bag from her mouth, "She made me cry first!" She said again as she watched Cora hand her mother all of her fluffy pallet she'd been so comfy on.

Cora pointed to her house, "Go! Make nice!"

Emma glared at both women before marching off to the house next door.

Mary Margaret touched Cora's hand, "You know that their fights aren't normal girl fights anymore…."

"Your subtlety is about as good as your daughter's… And mine. It's hard not to see that they are young and in love." Cora gave the other woman a look, "It's hard not to be jealous or intervene when they fight as well…"

Mary Margaret laughed, "I can tell… You climbed into the tree house for crying out loud."

"That I did."

~0~0~0~0~0~

Emma marched passed Henry, into Regina's room and slammed the door shut. She set her food on Regina's desk and pulled her quilt and life source from her book bag. She set her life source on the desk as well before she unfolded the quilt and turned to the bed to find Regina sitting up, staring at her in shock, trying to wipe her tear away and hide that she'd been crying.

"Your mom's making me come make up with you." Emma's tone was hard as she crawled across Regina and bundled into a ball with her quilt. "She knows we love each other more than friends and she told me to come make nice." The blonde provided before she turned, facing away from Regina.

"She knows about us?"

"Mothers always know." Cora said as she stepped into the room.

"Mother?"

"Regina, darling, why are you so scared to be who you are? Your father and I love Emma. Sure, she's a little rough around the edges like her father and she's a little flighty like her mother, but she loves you and that's all we want…" Cora shrugged before turning to the hallway and yelling, "Isn't that right, darling?"

"Yes, dear." Henry called—it was obviously two words he'd said so many times in his marriage, he didn't know what he was agreeing with.

Cora narrowed her brows, "Henry, get off your ass and get over here and tell your daughter that it's alright if she's in a relationship with Emma!"

"She finally said something? Good God. I was wondering how much longer I was going to have to pretend I'd seen and heard nothing!"

"Seen?" Regina asked before she could think about if she wanted to know the answer or not.

"Yeah, you two aren't exactly subtle." Was the only answer that Henry provided. "Can I watch my game now?" He turned to his wife.

Cora gave him a friendly glare, "I guess. You've done as asked." She kissed his waiting lips then lovingly pushed him away so he could watch his game. "Make up, darling. She did nothing wrong." Cora told her daughter, "Save days like this for when she does something bad and she knows it." She smirked before shutting the door.

Emma rested her head on Regina's shoulder, "I love you." She whispered.

"I love you, too." Regina smiled as she angled her face towards Emma's.

"I'm not a dirty little secret." Emma said as she laid back down and let Regina lay on top of her.

"You never were, apparently." Regina smiled and kissed the blonde's lips. She pulled back, "You gonna share your quilt with me?"

Emma nodded, "Yeah." She said like a toddler with a giant smile.


End file.
